Social media has exploded in recent years. It is used for a variety of purposes, including private networking, entertainment, news and general information, professional services etc. Across the world it has also become a tool for like-minded social and political actors (advocacy groups, social movements, political parties, civil society) who seek to mobilize supporters, promote certain issues etc. The most spectacular manifestation of this tendency was visible during the so-called Arab Spring, where social media were used actively to promote political change, in particular by shaping the debate, organizing events and engaging international media beyond national borders.
In this research, that was conducted by MIS4D, we explore the potential of social media to promote social change (democracy and social justice) in Cameroon in general and its use in supporting of the activities of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and their partners in particular. We analyse the regional context to understand the potential and limitations and assess the use of social media in Cameroon.

It is very instructive to follow a course at edX or Coursera. I did enrol myself in three courses. Typically, when you enroll in a MOOC you watch video lectures, you are asked to do sme reading and you interact with instructors and fellow participants in online forums. Sometimes you are required to take online tests or quizzes with multiple choice answers that are graded automatically. I guess that in the beginning you are completely overwhelmed by their offerings, overwhelmed by all the courses you can take. Have a go at one of the courses offered by these famous and highly ranked universities.

A key advantage of MOOCs over traditional classroom-based learning is their convenience. MOOCs offer a self-determined pace of learning so that you may study according to your own schedule (although some do have start and completion dates). This also gives you the opportunity to re-watch parts of the lecture that is more challenging .

Although MOOCs make high-quality education accessible to the masses, there is also reason for scepticism. Despite much excitement about how MOOCs might transform the education system, they have so far not been able to prove how effective they are. The first question is whether online platforms can maintain their high-level standards online. Because very quickly you notice that you are one of the many, many students taking a course. For example: A service desk is sending standard answers to you when you raise a question. Education is not only about high quality content. The educational process should also be high-level. Offering a high-level process is difficult with the massive number of students attracted by MOOCs.

Lurkers – This is the majority of students within xMOOCs, where people enroll but just observe or sample a few items at the most. Many of these students do not even get beyond registering for the MOOC or maybe watching part of a video.

Passive Participants – These are students who most closely align with traditional education students, viewing a course as content to consume. These students typically watch videos, perhaps take quizzes, but tend to not participate in activities or class discussions.

Active Participants – These are the students who fully intend to participate in the MOOC, including consuming content, taking quizzes and exams, taking part in activities such as writing assignments and peer grading, and actively participate in discussions via discussion forums, blogs, twitter, Google+, or other forms of social media.

Drop-Ins – These are students who become partially or fully active participants for a select topic within the course, but do not attempt to complete the entire course.

Another new acronym: Small private online courses (SPOCs) are a competing model to the MOOC. Will Oremus from Slate is clear about MOOCs, “Free online classes are an unsustainable gimmick“, and he explains that SPOCs provide a good alternative. As explained in the blogpost of Oremus, “The basic idea is to use MOOC-style video lectures and other online features as course materials in actual, normal-size college classes. By assigning the lectures as homework, the instructors are free to spend the actual class period answering students’ questions, gauging what they have and haven’t absorbed, and then working with them on projects and assignments. In some cases the instructors also use some MOOC-style online assessments or even automated grading features. But in general they’re free to tailor the curriculum, pace, and grading system to their own liking and their own students’ needs.”

In order for SPOCs to be successful, students are selected, to limit numbers of participants, and to ensure they satisfy entry requirements for the course. SPOCs allow institutes of higher education to use them in a “blended learning” approach that combines self-study with tools such as Skype or Google Hangout to support online classes.

The advantages are clear, individual attention can be given to students and progress – or drop out – can be closely monitored. Maybe even more important with individual attention for the students, high-level subjects can be addressed in a SPOC style approach. As Oremus concludes: Whether or not SPOCs amount to some sort of pedagogical revolution, it seems clear that they hold more promise than pure MOOCs when it comes to delivering students a full educational experience—not to mention saving academics’ jobs.

For us the key question is whether MOOCs or SPOCs provide an appropriate answer for the failing education system in Africa. Akua Djane describes the problems with education in Africa in a clear, touching but also worrying manner in her blog post Education in Africa is Failing its People. Many of these problems will not be solved over night and if we do not find answers another generation will receive poor or at least mediocre eduction.

The challenge for Africa is in capacity development and dedication to profession of lecturer. MOOCs could be a great tool for lecturers to develop and renew their knowledge and skills. In many universities in Africa lecturers use ‘yellow papers’ to teach, that is, they are pass on their own lecture notes to the new generation. MOOCs can help to replace these notes with new materials. With the new knowledge and skills the SPOC approach can be used to provide quality education to the new generation of students. Now that Internet services are more and more available also in rural areas, more people can be reached.

SPOCs are emerging in Africa. The Virtual University of Uganda is one of them. Through blended forms of online learning they try to develop an answer to the challenge of bringing high level education to East Africa. Both authors are part of this initiative.

The key to improvement of education will however be determination to excel and innovate. Government regulation and policies need to think on how to integrate the new ways of teaching and university administrators will to start thinking in global solutions. MOOCs and SPOCs provide an alternative to allow education in Africa to leapfrog, but ultimately, the lecturers will have to be determined and motivated to make it happen.

The London-based Transparency & Accountability Initiative published a report in which they investigated the impact of information systems and information technology use in 7 case studies of organisations in middle-income and developing countries. The main focus of the research is technology interventions that are attempting to increase the accountability of public and private organisations through technological transparency strategies. Cases in Brazil, Chile, Kenya, India and Slovakia were examined.

In the research three categories of technological intervention were identified:

‘Home run’ cases in which a technological intervention almost by itself produces dramatic increases in accountability, because it unleashes the latent wishes of individuals by allowing them to take significant actions that previously were impossible without the technology. This image, or type, is perhaps the most common mental paradigm for technological change more generally.

Interventions that complement traditional media efforts – especially investigative journalism – by making information about politicians, other officials or governmental activities generally available. This strategy is to improve accountability by improving the quality of the public sphere.

Technological interventions that are tailored to advance the very specific agendas of particular non-governmental or governmental organisations by amplifying their capabilities and strategies. In this category, success depends upon a successful marriage between particular technologies and the capabilities and efficacy of particular organisations that seek to utilise them. Most of the potential for technology to have an impact on accountability lies in this third category.

The researchers (Archon Fung, Hollie Russon Gilman and Jennifer Shkabatur) state that the introduction and use of ICT does not automatically increase transparency and participation, and recommend that it is crucial that the socio-political context is taken into consideration. They formulate four questions about context are particularly important:

What are the motives and incentives of potential users of the technology platform? For issues concerning public accountability, mass users often lack the incentives to acquire and act on information about corruption and malfeasance or even about budget misallocations (except in hyper-local instances), whereas organised users such as journalists and reform NGOs may be highly motivated to acquire and act on this information.

What are the capabilities of motivated users? Technological platforms should be tailored to the capabilities of potential users. SMS is better than the web when internet penetration is low. Kiirti, for instance, failed to find many NGOs with the capability to utilise its platform.

Does an ICT intervention reinforce the strategy of potential users? NGOs deploy particular strategies, and some ICT intervention may or may not fit with them. For example, a report by the Carter Center on the utility of Ushahidi platforms notes the difficulty of combining crowd-sourced reports with professional election monitoring standards.

Which organisations are efficacious with respect to accountability problems? Progress on accountability requires an organisation or coalition to possess the authority or resources to affect the problem. ICT helps when it is attached to such efficacious entities. For example, the most successful Kiirti deployment involves a transportation authority with the regulatory power to sanction problematic auto-rickshaw drivers. Uchaguzi is effective in part because it has worked with election regulatory bodies in Kenya.

The research concludes with 6 recommendation:

Funders should focus their energies on the second and third categories of intervention.

The first category of ‘home runs’ is difficult to identify and opportunities are rare.

In the second category, ICT interventions succeed when they serve as (i) highly credible sources of information that is (ii) of high interest and utility to (iii) journalists and political and advocacy campaigns.

Interventions in the third category are more likely to succeed when those who create the technology are embedded in local NGO networks, so that they understand the motivations and strategies of organised users and can tailor their efforts to fit them.

It is important for those who fund and support technological transparency interventions to help technology entrepreneurs and activists by pressing them to:
Lay out (i) what their initial assessment of the context is; (ii) what information the ICT platform will provide and who will provide it; (iii) who will use that information and why; and (iv) how that use will result in gains for accountability;
Periodically revise their contextual assessment and theory of action. In all of our cases, organisations that were successful evolved because they responded to errors in their initial theories of action.

Funders should not impose particular assessments or theories on NGOs or technology entrepreneurs. NGOs are generally better situated to make these difficult assessments.

The research is interesting because it confirms that ICT is not a magic bullet and will only work as the appropriate solutions are designed and implemented. The research would have greatly benefited if it had used the Appropriate ICT Framework. This way it would have been able to put the results in context.

The conclusions and recommendations, especially the strong emphasis on local technology providers, are very much biased by the countries that were included in the research. All countries in the sample have a relatively well developed ICT – industry. Most in the countries in Africa still lack this and need external support to develop appropriate solutions. A close learning relationship local and external ICT experts will develop better results in these contexts.